Toshimine (c.1863 - 1934 )
Born as Yuzo Tsutsui in Hyogo prefecture, Toshimine worked as a kuchi-e artist during the Meiji period. Kuchi-e, were designed as frontispieces for books or as illustrations for literary magazines. These works often portrayed delicate and romantic beauties executed with meticulous printing technique. A student of the famous Yoshitoshi, Toshimine produced prints for novels such as Ochi Fukuchi’s Toshima Storm (1895) and Kyoka Izumi ’s Kanmuri Yazaemon (1896). He also contributed twelve prints to the literary magazine Bungei Kurabu and regularly designed prints for a second magazine, Jiji Shinpo, from 1894 until the close of the Meiji period. Though his exact year of death is unknown, he died after 1934. Toshimine signed his works in a variety of ways, at times writing "tsutsui" in hiragana, at others using a variant form of the second character in "Toshimine."
Meiji Period Prints (1868-1912)
Meiji-period woodblock prints reflect an era of change. In 1853, the arrival of Commodore Perry’s black ships brought over 250 years of Japanese isolation to an abrupt end. The following year, as Japan engaged in international trade, Yokohama-e (Yokohama pictures) captured an influx of unfamiliar peoples, places and things entering Japan through Yokohama harbor. By 1868, the Imperial line attained control of the country under Emperor Meiji, terminating the feudal rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate and dissipating the culture of the floating world. Under the emperor, national modernization progressed rapidly. From Western-style clothes and pastimes, to exciting new inventions from overseas, Japan absorbed the massive influx of the foreign and developed a distinctly Japanese modern identity. While photography and lithography gained popularity at this time, the woodblock print continued to serve as a powerful medium. Meiji period artists made sense of a transitioning world with a familiar medium.
3 Products
